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Lieutenant Colonel William Jess
Buchanan, USAF (ret.) “(1926-2005) served as adjunct professor of creative writing at UNM for eight years.”
He is the author of Present Danger: A Novel; The Senator and the Sin Eater; Running Toward the Light; A
Shinning Season; One Last Time; and, Diablo: The Devil Steer.
One reader of A shinning
Season said, “As a teacher and sports fan, I found myself unable to put this book down. The book recounts
the life of John Baker, an elementary teacher and track star, who was stricken with cancer at a young age. His struggle to
deal with the disease and continue his career, is an inspiration. In addition, you get to know his family and friends and
how he helps them accept his disease. Reading this book will inspire you to not take what you have for granted and live for
the moment!”
According to the book description of
Running Toward the Light, “At the age of fifteen, George Mendoza lost all of his central vision
and 80 percent of his peripheral vision. After months of research, Mendoza's mother learned bright light could sometimes
help those with vision problems similar to his. In 1972, hoping to help her son, she moved them both from New York to Las
Cruces, New Mexico.
Mendoza was angry and bitter; he was
a teenager who faced limitations he had never imagined. Enrolled in the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped, he
renewed an earlier passion for running track, but his resentment did not leave him.
Shortly after high school graduation,
Mendoza heard of the curative powers of El Santuario de Chimayó in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of Santa Fe.
He hitchhiked to the small village, skeptical of a miracle cure. His vision was not restored, but Mendoza underwent a transformation
in the Chimayó chapel. He realized he was not handicapped; he was a person with a handicap. "I've got bad
eyes, sure, but there's nothing wrong with my heart or my lungs or my legs." He concluded he was meant to be an inspiration
to others "with a handicap."
Thus began a new chapter in George
Mendoza's life. He joined the track team at New Mexico State University, entered marathons, and, in 1980, ran in the International
Olympiad for the Physically Handicapped in the Netherlands.
Today, Mendoza has perfected another
hidden talent: he is an exceptional artist and his one-man shows are continual reminders that having a handicap does not diminish
the individual's abilities in other areas. This biography of the man who refuses to "be handicapped" will be
an inspiration to all who read it.”
According to the book description of
The Senator and the Sin Eater, “Seneca Falls, West Virginia, is a picturesque town. Tucked between the
foothills of the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, it lives in the shadow of the Dunning and Munroe families, mining moguls
who have competed for coal in the region for generations. It is a place Joshua Chac�n would rather forget.
The scorned biracial stepson of the Dunning dynasty, Chac�n has acquired a national reputation and a
Pulitzer Prize for his books revealing political skullduggery. Drawn back to the hometown he abandoned by news of the mysterious
murder of his half brother, Senator Stewart Dunning, Josh soon becomes entangled in a murder plot thick with the power politics
of the ruling families of West Virginia's mining country.”
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